Don’t Waste Your Money: The Best Grills

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You can burn up some big bucks on a new gas grill. But do you have to in order to get agrill that delivers delicious results?

Consumer Reports tested nearly a hundred gas grills that range in price from $100all the way up to $2,500. With some you need to factor in plenty of space. One grillConsumer Reports tested is 7 feet long!

Testers grill a number of foods to see how well each grill performs. Steaks arecooked to assess if flare-up is a problem. To see how evenly a grill cooks at lowertemperatures, testers grill salmon steaks as well as chicken breasts. Both those foodscan easily dry out if grill gets too hot.

And then there are tests that involve no food at all. Consumer Reports uses specialthermocouples to measure how evenly a grill distributes heat across the surface of thegrates. Some grill much more evenly than others.

Several high-priced grills were top performers, but Consumer Reports found plenty torecommend that cost a lot less. Among them the $200 Char-Broil Classic 463211512from the Home Depot. It rated excellent for low-temperature cooking and grilled up avery good steak, too.

Another great buy: the $250 Brinkmann 810-2545 grill sold at Walmart.

Complete Ratings and recommendations on all kinds of products, including appliances,cars & trucks, and electronic gear, are available on Consumer Reports’ website.Subscribe to ConsumerReports.org.